The First to the Corinthians

8 Now concerning foods offered to idols:*+ we know we all have knowledge.+ Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.+ 2 If anyone thinks he has acquired knowledge of something,+ he does not yet know [it] just as he ought to know [it].+ 3 But if anyone loves God,+ this one is known by him.+

4 Now concerning the eating+ of foods offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing+ in the world,* and that there is no God but one.+ 5 For even though there are those who are called “gods,”+ whether in heaven+ or on earth,+ just as there are many “gods” and many “lords,”+ 6 there is actually to us one God*+ the Father,+ out of whom all things are, and we for him;+ and there is one Lord,+ Jesus Christ,+ through whom all things are,+ and we through him.

7 Nevertheless, there is not this knowledge in all persons;+ but some, being accustomed until now to the idol, eat food as something sacrificed to an idol,+ and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.+ 8 But food will not commend us to God;+ if we do not eat, we do not fall short, and, if we eat, we have no credit to ourselves.+ 9 But keep watching that this authority of YOURS does not somehow become a stumbling block to those who are weak.+ 10 For if anyone should see you, the one having knowledge, reclining at a meal in an idol temple,* will not the conscience of that one who is weak be built up to the point of eating foods offered to idols?+ 11 Really, by your knowledge, the man that is weak is being ruined, [your] brother for whose sake Christ died.+ 12 But when YOU people thus sin against YOUR brothers and wound their conscience+ that is weak, YOU are sinning against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble,+ I will never again eat flesh at all, that I may not make my brother stumble.+